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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25874581">so, with advice of the dead</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/poppiswap/pseuds/poppiswap'>poppiswap</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Persona 4, Persona 5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Gen, descriptions of izanamis fucked up hand</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 09:01:18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,479</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25874581</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/poppiswap/pseuds/poppiswap</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>and a halo over my head.</p>
<p>Maruki gets paid a visit, and given some advice.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>37</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>so, with advice of the dead</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <b>JANUARY 10th, 20XX</b>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>He doesn’t know what time it is.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>It’s deathly quiet when he opens his eyes, and the air is cold, stagnant, as if it were a tomb; and yet he looks around and sees no enclosed walls keeping him. It’s somewhat dark, but just light enough to be able to see he’s sitting on the edge of some sort of platform. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>Takuto looks down.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The abyss looks back up at him.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>He yelps, scrambling back away from the edge, so as not to fall. He slowly rises to his feet, smoothing down his shirt--  <em> is it a shirt? </em>He looks down, looks at his hands. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>He has approximately four five two three whatever fingers. He blinks, rubbing his eyes once, and checks again. Still hazy.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><em> Oh, </em> he realizes. <em> I’m dreaming. </em></p>
<p> </p>
<p>He doesn’t really lucid dream often, but it’s somewhat disorienting whenever he does. He usually wakes up still as a corpse, unable to move for a few minutes, frozen by sleep paralysis. Which is always unpleasant, so he’s not really looking forward to that. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>Well, he doesn’t remember going to bed or anything<em> , </em>either, but he’ll probably remember that eventually. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>He looks around the area. Unlike his ambiguously numbered fingers, it’s rather defined, with strange red shapes sticking out of the clouds below, going on for infinity but drowned out after a while by thick fog that seems to encompass everything. He can feel it on his skin as if it were real, and it’s cold. It’s fogging up his glasses, so he briefly takes them off to wipe off the lenses--</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Careful. You’re close to the edge.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Takuto yelps at the sudden voice, backing up; and then he feels the edge of the platform, so he stumbles <em> forward, </em> and finally once he regains his balance he looks up and he doesn’t really know how to describe the feeling of strange and otherworldly <em> dread </em> that settles nicely in his stomach.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>She is tall-- taller than him, at least, by a few inches, probably at least six feet-- and her skin is milky white, almost ghostly, like an unpainted doll’s. Her hair is grey and yet not aged, hanging around her shoulders, and her eyes are sharp, unreadable, deeply red.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>She wears white robes. She looks disappointed. Not <em>in </em>him, really, but more <em>at </em>him.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Not as grandiose as I expected,” she comments, “but I can’t judge you based on that.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Wh-- Judge?” he echoes, <em> very </em>much disliking the way she seems to look right through him. It’s not like how Kurusu can see through people, it’s far deeper than that. Like she sees into the core of his very being, and the only thing worse than feeling like that, is that judging by her expression, she does not care very much for what she sees.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Must I elaborate,” she responds, and her words sound more like a statement rather than a question.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“I’m sorry,” he says reflexively. He has no idea why he should be sorry, but he feels the need to apologize anyway. The woman’s eyes narrow-- not out of contempt, just further studying him, and he shifts uncomfortably.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“I came here to talk.”  </p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Talk…?”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Beat.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Of course. He shakes his head a few times, trying to get his bearings as he takes a deep breath. “I-- Is this about… what I… ?”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Of course it is, you fool. Did you really think you would go unnoticed?”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Azathoth shifts restlessly in Takuto’s mind. He doesn’t try anything, he doesn’t know what this woman is capable of.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“The one who came before you…” The woman folds her hands in front of her-- her sleeves are so long, he can’t see her hands. He wonders if that’s intentional. “He was arrogant. An arrogance I am familiar with.” She tilts her head. “If this is the route you’re going down, I wonder… is that same arrogance harboured in you?”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“No,” Takuto answers, and she laughs-- it’s light, and airy, but he tenses all the same. He doesn’t know if he displeased her or not.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“That’s what we thought, too.” She shakes her head. “But tell me, what do you think the difference between you two is, then?” </p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Um, well,” Takuto starts, but pauses. “... You probably know, don’t you…?”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>She laughs again. “I do. It is respect. You respect them too much. You wouldn’t let them go through a game to prove themselves, you already see their strength.” She folds her hands the other way. “No playing. Just winning.” Her eyes sparkle somewhat playfully, though it does nothing to bring Takuto any form of relief. She tilts her head. “Right?”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“... R-- Right. They’ve already been through so much, I just want to give everyone a world where…”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Where they don’t have to hide who they are?” </p>
<p> </p>
<p>She takes a step forward. Takuto is fairly certain he goes pale. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>“They don’t have to worry about <em> anything,” </em>the woman goes on, approaching at a steady pace. Fear bubbles up in his stomach like lava, threatening to spill out of his throat. “They can just be happy. And they will never try. Or have to overcome any hardships. Because they can see only what they want. They will be given what they want.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Takuto has barely a chance to blink before she has her hand gripped around his throat. The sleeve has fallen back, and he almost gags at the smell, like rotting flesh and blood. It’s horrible, horrible, and he can’t even <em> breathe. </em>He scrabbles at her hand to try to pull it away, but he only gets blood and flesh on his fingers, under his fingernails, on his palms, making them slippery and sticky. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>“In a sense,” the woman says calmly, as if she isn’t choking Takuto, “is that not essentially letting their Shadows consume them?”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Wh-- Why-- are-- you--?!” he can <em> barely </em>choke it out. The air is so hot and yet so chillingly cold at the same time. His vision blurs at the edges, only clearing as she lessens her grip-- only to tighten it once again. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>“You are willing to die for this world, aren’t you? The one you’ve created? If that let them keep their happiness, would you let yourself disappear?”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>He can’t talk, but he knows the answer. <em> Yes, </em> he wants to say, but he also thinks it would be kind of pathetic to get choked out by a nightmare monster woman in his dreams and have <em> that </em>be the way he goes out. He coughs, but it gets stuck.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“If your world gets realized, I hope you know that shall not be the end of your conflict.” She lessens her grip some, so that Takuto can at least hear her over the blood roaring in his ears. “If I don’t get to that world first, someone else will. Neither of us will be kind.” She works her jaw.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“But.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>She drops him on the floor, and he starts coughing, wheezing, trying to regain his breath.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“That wouldn’t be fair. I can’t judge you yet. And besides, it’s not my place to decide where this goes; it’s yours, as you are the god of this game.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“I.. I don’t…” He wheezes again, clutching at his throat. It’s sticky with blood, and he gags. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Well.” She smooths down her robes. “It is up to you. I will come see you if the scales are tipped in your favour.” She bends down. <em> “Do </em>make it entertaining for the lot of us until the end, won’t you? We’d hate it if you made things boring before the final decision.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>He looks up.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>She frowns.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Be careful, and know what powers you meddle with. Altruism is a favourable trait to be found in the divine, but it is dangerous in humans. Be careful, in this time while you are both, or you may be struck down.” She reaches out, fingertips touching his chin and raising his head. “By me, or by the forces that seek <em> true </em> reality. You have no idea how <em> stubborn </em>people can be.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>He swallows roughly in response. He is still <em> very </em>dizzy.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“This is a battle of tenacity, nothing more. Don’t forget that.” She smirks. “See you soon.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>He is on the floor.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>One of the Shadow guards in the lab is peering over him, making sure he isn’t dead.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>… He blinks for a moment, trying to get his bearings back.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“A-- Ah, don’t worry, I’m…” He sits up, still feeling that wet feeling of blood on his neck, where there is none there, “I’m fine.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>He looks up.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>That tense feeling in his chest refuses to leave, like a folded up lawn chair right over his heart. He feels sick.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em> Is she watching now? </em>
</p>
<p><br/>
<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
</p>
<p>
  <b>MARCH 15, 20XX</b>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>He knows she’s coming. He knows <em> someone </em>is coming, to properly judge him.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>He knows his answer. He knows how to reply.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Yes, he would die for this. </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>thanks for reading, now look at this other thing i made https://twitter.com/peachdelta/status/1293680658393362432?s=20</p>
<p>i oh so desperately want more fics of izanami and yu getting mad at maruki. its so funny to me</p>
<p>leave kudos if you enjoyed!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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